The present invention relates to computer aided color design, particularly the compounding of colors from primary colors with the aid of a computer.
In various fields, such as computer aided design, there is a need to provide the design of color, for example in coloring selected areas of a design. Other uses include the computer aided design of cosmetic coloring, and the like.
The usual for computer aided color designing involves the direct input of specific primary color proportions, such as directly inputting the proportions of red (R), green (G), and blue (B). Primary colors may also be referred to as elementary colors or reference colors, and there may be more than three, for example there might be four.
One such apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. 59-154490/1984, wherein a display screen shows a triangle having its apexes representing the three primary colors R, G, B, with the user indicating a point within the triangle that represents a specific proportion of such three colors, so that a separate display area on the screen will then show the thus compounded color; other user information may be submitted.
A similar system is disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 62-44795/1987, wherein four columns represent four primary colors Y, M, C, B. The user will indicate a proportion for each of the four colors, and the thus compounded color will appear in a display area on the screen.
In each of these known devices and methods, specific percentages of the primary colors are directly inputted by the user.